Shandalier

Quote: Originally Posted by AustinGirl I am also an Austin bride!!! 9 weeks away for me. Good to see some fellow Texans on here I agree! You are the first Austin bride I have seen. I wonder if we know each other...

Quote: Originally Posted by aggieangel01 Shanda- Thanks for the info...Tiffany is my WC also but I didn't know this since I hadn't really looked into it much...guess I'll be sticking with Caribe and hoping for the best!!! Are you bringing a photog from Austin? I miss Austin soooooooooo much!!! GL with the rest of your planning!!! Hello again from Austin! I wish I could afford to bring someone from here (to pay for their trip and then pay for the pictures). I haven't been super impressed with the pictures I have seen so far from Caribe. I think they just aren't artistic enough - like my mom could stand there with a digital camera and take the same pictures, ya know? I am going to look into what someone said about checking the Lomas website. There are apparently other photogs on there that aren't on the Sensatori site. This forum has been so helpful!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Anon101 So the only options for larger parties are the windy beach or inside?!?!?! The place is an all-inclusive resort and we're paying for food and drink, and now the location options are only the beach and a meeting room. Honestly, I'll consider switching hotels (and do everything I can to make them pay the related costs) if that's the case. It is so frustrating!! Tiffany sent me an e-mail last week and included the plaza as one of our choices for the reception. She said on Friday that she will let me know when it is confirmed. My TA also said she was on a webinar and they included it there as well. Please post if anyone hears about this. We have about 60 people coming to the wedding. We don't want to do the beach because we heard it is so windy and we definitely aren't paying for a destination wedding so we can have a reception in a ballroom. What are they thinking eliminating this as an option? I bet it's just because they want people to have to pay for the dance floor.

Quote: Originally Posted by trayce2222 We are going to buy some snacks and goodies for the bags at Costco is Playa. Our bags are pretty much finished except for that kind of stuff, but who knows what we may see and end up buying! There is a Costco in Playa? How close to the resort? I love Costco!!

Quote: Originally Posted by aggieangel01 Sorry...I have another question....is ANYONE using the Caribe Photogs offered by Karisma? That's who I have booked b/c I just haven't had time to look into other options, but I'm getting scared after reading some posts. If no one is using them any advice on who to use down there would be GREATLY appreciated!!! I have 8 weeks to go and am freakin out!!! I talked to my WC, Tiffany, yesterday and she said they no longer allow you to bring in an outside photog from Mexico. I was looking around for one but not anymore. She said if you bring a photographer (like from home) they have to actually stay at the resort for at least 3 nights. So they basically have to be a guest for your wedding. Who is your WC? By the way, I am a fellow Texas bride - Austin! Shanda

Quote: Originally Posted by Hoosierfan Hi! Our wedding is scheduled for 4pm. Sunset is supposed to be at 5:08 pm which gives us about an hour to do bride/groom pics outdoors with some natural light. I thought about seeing if I could move it to 3:30, so maybe it's not a big deal if you moved yours! Uh-oh. I wonder if I had it wrong. I checked weather.com for October 2, 2009 and it said sunset is around 6:35. I don't think they observe daylight savings there but could there be that much of a change in the sunset times between October and November? Just want to make sure we are scheduling everything right! Where did you find out about 5:08?

Quote: Originally Posted by Hoosierfan Hey ladies, Has anyone changed their wedding time and been assessed a time-change fee? I thought I read that somewhere and now I'm wondering if we should move ours back to allow for enough time for pictures. They originally scheduled ours for 4:00 and I requested it to be a little later. Then they came back with 6:00. The sun sets at 6:35 so I thought that was too late. We finally inked in on 5:00 so we have time for the ceremony and then some pictures. We weren't charged any type of time-change fee as far as I know! What time is your ceremony scheduled?

I got it - thank you again!! I just skimmed through it and so far it has answered so many of my questions. I'll check Signature Vacations to see if they offer a better rate. Thanks for the tip :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by amysteele444 I am doing OOT bag and just paying the $4 per room del. charge. I think there is something nice about your guest being welcomed immediatly. We are also having a private beach front welcome party that evening for everyone to meet at which time we plan to give a little speech also expressing out gratitude for everyones time and travel. Our welcome bags turned out really good. I included a little note that welcomed everybody and had a little rundown of events. We also included a self addressed/stamped post card for each of our guests to writes us at the end of their stay. Once we arrive home I plan to have them nicely bound into what will act as our guest book. I plan to take a pic of all our inserts and what have you to post at the end of the month for you all. I am new to the site and still reading all these posts. I love your postcard idea! How did it work out for you? Did you ever post pics on here? I may get to them in pages to come but just wondering :-) Shanda

Quote: Originally Posted by dinogomez.com Welcome to the forum and congratulations!! You've come to the right place; here you can find all the info you need for a fun, smooth and successful planning!! Enjoy!!! Do you work in Playa? We are still looking for a photographer!

Quote: Originally Posted by khoyle Hi Shanda, First off - Welcome! You'll find yourself coming here almost everyday for updates. The highlights for me are when the brides share their pics with us! Secondly, I decided to do the sit down dinner. It's nice to have your whole group in an area that's semi private, so people can give speeches and toast the bride and groom. The cheap dinners are supposedly very good and are only $12/person. Question to recent brides, or brides to be that have already paid for their reception. Has anyone had to add another person last minute?? My friend just informed me that he could probably come, but I didn't pay for him. Thanks! 3 weeks today till I leave for Sensatori!! Kelly Kelly Thanks Kelly! I think we are going to end up doing the sit down dinner. The standing cocktail reception starts at $21 per person (I think) so doing the $12 sit down would be cheaper AND we get the 4 hours instead of 2. We are trying to save money with the wedding stuff so we can pay for an excursion for all of our guests. Speaking of...have any brides out there done excursions with your whole group? Any suggestions?

Quote: Originally Posted by nathanielthompsonphoto Welcome to the forum! What resort did you choose? Azul Sensatori. We were worried because it was so new and we read some negative reveiws on Tripadvisor, but reading a lot of these posts has really put our minds at ease.

I just found this forum and I have so many questions - any help is greatly appreciated! We are mainly debating on what kind of reception to do - the cocktail reception or dinner reception. I feel like they are double dipping having us pay for a sit down dinner when the food is all inclusive. Is it worth it? And if you do a standing cocktail, do all your guests really have to stand? Do you have to pay the $16 surcharge per table? We are also trying to get a rate on a site visit for this summer. Did they give anyone a discounted rate for a site visit? Can't wait to hear back from those who went in the last couple of weeks! Shanda

Hi ladies! My FI directed me to this forum and I am so glad he found you! This is going to be so helpful!! Please add me - confirmed for October 2, 2009. Thank you so much. Shanda

Quote: Originally Posted by melissa.crossley Hi! I'm a newbie and just joined this forum...my FI and I recently did a site visit for Azul Sensatori and we both fell in love with the resort and all the different wedding/reception venue options! We decided Azul is where we want our destination wedding...but after reading so many posts, it seems Fabio & the other wedding coordinators are difficult to get a hold of and aren't really on top of things, is that pretty much correct? I called & emailed Fabio a few times last week to see if we could get some price quotes and see if they have Jan 2nd 2010 open for our wedding date and have yet to hear anything from him. Should I just be patient? Can anyone tell me how they went about reserving their wedding date and how they got price quotes? Is there a specific travel agency we have to work with? Any info you can provide is much appreciated! We're in the very early stages of planning and I want to make sure Azul Sensatori is the right place for us! Thanks so much! Melissa, I am a newbie too - just joined today! I contacted a travel agent early on and she was the one who actually suggested Azul. She was amazing at getting things rolling (quoting rates, getting my guest's deposits, etc.) So far, she has done absolutely EVERYTHING for me as far as contact with the resort. I have an October 2009 wedding and I am just getting in touch with a coordinator this week. Now that I read all this, I am a little apprehensive about talking to one since my travel agent has done so well getting in touch with them on her own. I would highly recommend doing it that way if you have a lot of guests - so far, we're at around 60. Hope this helps! Shanda

Any clue who that photographer is?

Our wedding is set for October 2, 2009 at Azul Sensatori. Can't wait to get some good information on this site!

My fiance found this site and I am thrilled! We finally chose a resort in Mexico and have already booked 25 rooms but we're worried about negative reviews we've read. I am so happy to have found a site like this to help us.